Another Cunning Challenge! This time the prompt was "What do you mean she stole the mecha?" submitted to me by SmallJon.
Torchwick snapped his fingers, and the curtain behind him was pulled back. Behind it sat a hulking metal behemoth, easily four meters tall. It was vaguely humanoid, but hunched over with weapons apparent on its arms and back. The red logo of the White Fang was embossed on its arms.
"That's a big robot," muttered Sun from his place in the crowd of new recruits.
"How did he get that?" whispered Blake.
"As some of you may have heard, this right here is Atlas's newest line of defense against all the scary things in the world," announced Torchwick, rapping the side of the machine. "And thanks to my employer, we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, hit the shelves.
"Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine, but if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"
The crowd of Faunus burst into cheers as Torchwick finished. All around Blake and Sun, veteran members and new recruits alike were shouting and waving their fists. Blake was shocked to see them so riled up by a human, so drawn in by what he was saying. Not to mention so ready to use military hardware to attack people.
"We should get out of here," she whispered, turning to Sun.
But no sooner had she said that then the lieutenant called out from the stage.
"Would all new recruits please come forward?"
"Well," exclaimed Sun, looking around and trying not to seem too awkward as the crowd moved past him and Blake. Pretty soon it was going to be obvious that they were trying to stay back. "What are we going to do?" he whispered to Blake.
"I'm thinking," she answered quickly, scanning the room for a way out.
Onstage, Torchwick was leaning against the Atlesian robot, glancing over the crowd. He stopped when he saw the two new recruits who weren't moving, his face twisting into a scowl.
"He sees us," muttered Sun.
Torchwick tossed his cigar aside and advanced towards the front of the stage, eyes locked on Blake and Sun. The monkey Faunus waved at him, doing absolutely nothing to dispel the tension.
That was when Blake caught sight of a junction box.
"He can't see in the dark," she whispered. She drew her weapon, taking just a moment to aim before firing. A moment later the overhead lamps went out, plunging the room into darkness.
"Don't let them get away!" yelled Torchwick, but with his Faunus night vision, Sun could see the criminal stumbling about blindly. The White Fang members turned towards where the shot had come from, but even they were disoriented by the sudden and unexpected darkness.
Blake fired Gambol Shroud again, and Torchwick grunted in pain as the shot struck his Aura. "Sun, the window!" she called out.
"Stop them!" yelled Torchwick.
The monkey Faunus turned towards the stage, behind which there were windows on the second floor. He sprang up to the catwalk in a single bound and was about to crash through when he realized that Blake wasn't with him. He cast a glance over his shoulder and saw her climbing the Atlesian robot. Then he saw a White Fang soldier pointing a rifle at him. He grimaced and threw himself into the window, breaking through it easily.
He continued running away from the factory. A few seconds after he went through the window, he heard a massive crash. Taking a second to look back, he saw that the Atlesian robot had come crashing through the wall and was running after him.
Inside the factory, Torchwick slowly dragged himself back onto his feet, shielding his eyes against the moonlight that came pouring through the giant hole in the wall.
"What happened?" he muttered. Neo waved her scroll in his face in reply. Torchwick grabbed onto her wrist and held it steady enough to read what was on the device.
"What do you mean, she stole the mecha?" he shouted.
He got his answer an instant later when a missile came flying through the hole in the wall. Neo yanked him out of the way just in time to avoid a fiery death. The missile exploded behind him, throwing Faunus off their feet.
Outside, Sun sprang onto the robot's shoulder.
"Blake, is that you?" he called.
"Yeah, it's me," she answered over the mecha's loudspeaker system.
"How are you even piloting that?" Sun cried.
"It's pretty intuitive, at least if you've used stolen Atlas tech before."
Sun decided that now wasn't the time to unpack that statement. He practically jumped out of his skin when Blake fired another missile into the factory.
"That should get the police here pretty quickly, right?" she asked.
"Yeah, I would think so!" Sun shouted in reply.
"Good, then let's go," she answered. Sun had to hang on as the Atlesian robot spun around and began lumbering off into the city.
"Wait, are you taking this?" he yelled to Blake.
"Well I can't let them keep it!" she answered.
"OK, then where are we going to ditch it?" asked Sun.
"Ditch it?"
General Ironwood strode across the quad of Beacon. The sun was only just rising, but he needed to speak with Professor Ozpin immediately. An apparent falling out between members of the White Fang had revealed a hidden meeting location in a warehouse in Vale. Several members had been arrested before they could flee the scene. The ones that could be convinced to cooperate had told stories of stolen Atlesian military hardware, and a base to the southeast of Vale.
Coming into sight of the school entrance, the general stopped in his tracks, sensing that something was out of place. He slowly turned his head towards the student dormitories, and what he saw there left him speechless for several minutes.
Parked in between two dorm buildings was a prototype Atlesian Paladin with the logo of the White Fang embossed on its arms. Its footprints were visible on the lawn, stretching back towards the road to Vale. The neat arrangement of the footprints made it evident that whoever had piloted the mecha was competent and possibly even trained.
General Ironwood took a deep breath, and then began sprinting towards Ozpin's office.